Today in History....December 18

On this day in …

1620, passengers on the British ship Mayflower come ashore at modern-day Plymouth, Massachusetts, to begin their new settlement, Plymouth Colony
1777, the new United States celebrates its first national day of thanksgiving, commemorating the American victory at the Battle of Saratoga after the surrender of General John Burgoyne and 5,000 British troops in October 1777

1865, the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery, was declared in effect

1892, Tchaikovsky's ballet "The Nutcracker" publicly premiered in St. Petersburg, Russia

1940, Adolf Hitler, ym"sh, signed a secret directive ordering preparations for a Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union. (Operation Barbarossa was launched in June 1941.)

1941, Japanese troops land in Hong Kong and a slaughter ensues

1956, Japan was admitted to the United Nations

1972, the United States began heavy bombing of North Vietnamese targets during the Vietnam War. (The bombardment ended 12 days later.)

1996, FBI agent Earl Edwin Pitts was arrested, accused of selling secrets to the Russians. (Pitts was sentenced in June 1997 to 27 years in prison.)

2001, federal judge in Philadelphia threw out vicious cop-killer Mumia Abu-Jamal's death sentence and ordered a new sentencing hearing for the former Black Panther (Both sides appealed that ruling, and Abu-Jamal remains on death row.)

2005,


In a televised speech, President Bush declared that Iraq's parliamentary elections signaled the birth of democracy in the Middle East

Susanne Osthoff, a German aid worker kidnapped in Iraq by practitioners of that "religion of peace", was freed after three weeks in captivity

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon suffered a mild stroke